So forthwith, a getting-there-without-tears sourdough starter post. The French call it a levain, and it's a batch of happy yeast cells in a liquid medium that is used by itself or in combo with commercial yeast to make doughs rise.
There are many tutorials out there about how to begin a sourdough starter from scratch, such as Rose Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible (she makes a stiff starter, double the flour to water, but the principle is the same) and the King Arthur Flour blog, and several videos as well. (I started mine about 20 years ago from organic rye flour, organic grapes and bottled water.)
If I've given you some of mine, or someone else has, then you just have to feed the starter and it will live on indefinitely. Every time you use it, just feed the remainder and the cells will remain active and the starter is ready to use whenever. If you don't plan on using it more than once a week, the starter can live in your fridge, where the cell activity will slow down from the cold enough so it stays alive, but not exhausting its food supply.
To feed the starter, weigh what you have and feed it half its weight in flour and half in water. For example, if the starter weighs 150 grams, you will stir in 75 g. flour and 75 g. water. You will then have 300 g. of starter, that will be most active if you give it about 6 hours at room temperature. It should rise to about double its size in about 4 hours. If you don't plan on using it soon, leave the fed starter at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate it.
If you don't plan on using 300 g. and you want to keep less, you can discard some before you feed it, as long as you keep at least 60 g., to be fed 30 g each of flour and water. This amount fits in a pint container or 12-ounce jar with room to rise.
When you do want to use the refrigerated starter, leave it out at room temperature for an hour or two and watch for it to rise slightly. Then use however much your recipe calls for. Weigh the remainder and feed it as before, half water and half flour by weight.
If you won't be using your starter for a bit, it will be okay in the freezer -- the longest I have frozen mine was two weeks. When you want to maintain it again, leave the frozen starter out at room temperature until it thaws out completely. Feed it as above and leave until you see bubbles and it has that fruity, slightly beer-y smell -- it may not rise to fully double, but it will be fine.
If you forget to feed your starter in the fridge for a week or two, and there is clear or greyish liquid on top, it is still okay. Stir that liquid back in, discard half of the starter, and feed it. Leave it at room temperature until it rises, then either use or refrigerate. If it takes a long time to rise (more than 6 hours with no activity), feed it again. Usually the most neglected starter will bounce back after two or three feedings 12 hours or so apart.
⇒⇒⇒If you ever see pinkish or orangey spots or liquid, or black mold, do not hesitate to throw the starter out. This is a sign of potentially harmful bacteria. Contact me to give you some more 😁, don't feel that you have to save it.
Here as an act of good starter faith is the pizza dough recipe I use: (even though at the moment my home oven is not conducive to pizza-making -- i will live through you all.)
Sourdough Pizza Dough
220 g. room-temp water
10 g. (2 tsp.) active dry yeast
165 g. all-purpose flour
300 g. bread flour
15 g. (1 tbsp) salt
15 g. (1 tbsp) sugar (optional -- it makes it brown better and rise a bit faster)
200 g. sourdough starter, fed about 6-10 hours before
50 g. olive oil
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together the dry ingredients. Form a well, and add the wet ingredients and yeast water. Combine with your fingers, sweeping the flour into the well to form a shaggy dough. Knead it until it is smooth and elastic, and you get a gluten window. (in the mixer, go 3 minutes on low, then 6-8 minutes on medium). Turn the dough out of the bowl and knead a few times just to bring any wet parts and dry parts together. Put a little olive oil in the bowl and drop the dough back in, turning it over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap.
Let the dough rise til it doubles (about 40 minutes) then knock it down and divide into pieces -- I usually make two 14" or three 10-12" from this size batch, or about 240 g. each for 4 individual pizzas depending on how thin you want to stretch it.
Shape each piece into a ball, return them to the oiled bowl, cover, then rest in the fridge til you're ready to stretch. (Or freeze on an oiled pan until solid, then place in a freezer bag.)
I prep all my toppings first, then stretch and top and right into the 475 oven. If you want it puffier/more foccacia-like, let the pizza rise about 10-15 minutes with the toppings on.
Rise, and shine!
No comments:
Post a Comment